Teams in Organizational

Behavior
By Chiranjib Mitra
 Teams

• A team ‘is a small number of employees with complementary competencies

(abilities, skills and knowledge) who are committed to common performance
goals and working relationships for which they hold themselves mutually
accountable’.
• A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of
mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than
the sum of the performance of its individual members.
 Teams

• Two or more people who are interdependent, who share responsibility for
outcomes, who see themselves as (and who are seen by others as) an intact
social entity in a larger social system are also called as “Teams”.
• When teams are formed,its members must have (or quickly develop) the right
mix of complementary competencies to achieve the team’s goals. Also its
members need to be able to influence how they will work together to
accomplish those goals.
 Teams

• Teams offer an alternative to a vertical chain-of-command and are a much more

inclusive approach to business organization, Teams are becoming more
common in the business world today. Effective teams can lead to an increase in
employee motivation and business productivity.
 Teams

The team can be defined by following ways too:

• A group of people who compete in a sport, game, etc., against another group.
• A group of people who work together.
• A group of two or more animals used to pull a wagon, cart, etc.
• A number of persons forming one of the sides in a game or contest.
• A number of persons associated in some joint action: a team of experts.
 Characteristics of Effective Teams

Ideal Size and Membership

• The team should be the minimum size needed to achieve the team’s goals and include
members with the right mix of skills and talents to get the job done.
Fairness in Decision-Making
• Ideally, teams will make decisions by consensus. When consensus is not feasible, teams
will use fair decision-making procedures that everyone agrees on.
Creativity
• Effective teams value original thinking and will produce new and unique approaches to
organizational problems.
 Characteristics of Effective Teams

Accountability
• Members must be accountable to each other for getting their work done on schedule and
following the group’s rules and procedures.
Purpose and Goals
• Every team member must clearly understand the purpose and goals for bringing this
particular group of individuals together.
Action Plans
• Help the team determine what advice, assistance, training, materials, and other resources it
may be needed.
 Characteristics of Effective Teams

Roles & Responsibilities

• Teams operate most efficiently if they tap everyone’s talents. All members understand their own
duties.
Information Sharing
• Effective discussions depend upon how well information is passed between team members – hoarding
information cannot be tolerated. A proliferation of new technologies has made this easier than it has
ever been.
Good Data
• With information sharing comes the requirement for good data. Teams that use good data for problem-
solving and decision making have a much easier time arriving at permanent solutions to problems.
 Characteristics of Effective Teams

Meeting Skills and Practices

• All team members must commit to a common method for conducting meetings. There is no ‘best’ method, but everyone
must be on the same page.
Decision Making
• This is really a subset of the ‘Skills & Practices’. There is no ‘one way’ to reach a decision, but it must be a recognized path
and transparent to all team members.
Participation
• Since every team member has a stake In the group’s achievements, everyone should participate in discussions and decisions,
share a commitment to the team’s success, and contribute their talents.
Ground Rules
• Groups invariably establish ground rules (or “norms”) for what will and will not be tolerated within the group. Many
members will want to skip the laying of ground rules, but in the long run investment up front will head off major issues
down the road.
Characteristics of Effective Teams

Clear Roles
• How we apportion the team purpose will in large measure determine the- team
synergy. High-performing teams leverage individuals’ different roles against
collective work products.
• Therefore, it is essential that every team member is clear about his or her own
role as well as the role of every other team member. Roles are about the design,
division, and deployment of the work of the team.
Characteristics of Effective Teams

Accepted Leadership
• High-performance teams need competent leadership. When such leadership is
lacking, groups can quickly lose their way. Whereas a common, compelling task
might be the biggest contributor to team effectiveness, inadequate team leadership
is often the single biggest reason for team ineffectiveness.
• In most organizational settings, it is the leader who frames the team purpose and
facilitates discussions on its meaning and nature. The vision, commitment, and
communication of the leader govern the optics through which individual team
members see the team purpose and become aligned to it.
Characteristics of Effective Teams

Effective Processes
• Teams and processes go together. It would never occur to a surgical team,
construction crew, string quartet, or film crew to approach tasks without clearly
defined processes. The playbook of a football team or the score sheet of a string
quartet clearly outlines the necessary processes.
• Business teams have processes as well, which might include solving problems,
making decisions, managing a meeting, or designing a product.
Characteristics of Effective Teams

Solid Relationships
• One of the biggest misperceptions in the world of teams and teamwork is the
belief that to work and communicate effectively, team members must be
friends.
• In fact, the diversity of skills, experience, and knowledge needed to divide
tasks effectively almost precludes high levels of friendship, which is most often
based on commonality — of the way people think, their interests, or beliefs.
Characteristics of Effective Teams

Excellent Communication
• Communication is the very means of cooperation. One of the primary motives
of companies choosing to implement teams is that team-based organizations are
more responsive and move faster. A team cannot move faster than it
communicates.
• Fast, clear, timely, accurate communication is a hallmark of high levels of team
performance. High-performance teams have mastered the art of straight talk;
there is little motion wasted through misunderstanding or confusion.
 Team Empowerment

The term “team empowerment” refers to the degree to which its members
perceive the group as –
• Capable of being effective (potency).
• Performing important and valuable tasks (meaningfulness).
• Having independence and discretion (autonomy)in performing the work, and
• Experiencing a sense of importance and significance (impact)in the work
performed and goals achieved.
 Types of teams

• Functional teams:
• They usually represent individuals who work together daily on a cluster of
ongoing and independent tasks. Functional teams often exist within functional
departments – marketing, production, finance, auditing, human resources and
the like.
 Types of teams

• Problem solving teams:

• They focus on specific issues in their areas of responsibility, develop potential
solutions, and often are empowered to take actions within defined limits. Such
teams frequently address quality or cost problems.
 Types of teams

• Cross-functional teams:
• They bring together the knowledge and skills of people from various work
areas to identify and solve mutual problems. They draw members from several
specialties or functions and deal with problems that cut across departmental
and functional lines to achieve their goals.
• They are often more effective in situations that require adaptability, speed and a
focus on responding to customer needs.
 Types of teams

• Self-managed teams:
• They normally consist of employees who must work together effectively daily to manufacture an entire product (or major
identifiable component) or service. These teams perform a variety of managerial tasks, such as,
• Scheduling work and vacations by members,
• Rotating tasks and assignments among members,
• Ordering materials,
• Deciding on team leadership,
• Setting key team goals,
• Budgeting
• Hiring replacements for departing team members, and
• Evaluating one another’s performance.